474 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



necessary to repair the frame so that it itself, together with its engine, 

 which was entirely uninjured, might be available for further use if it 

 should later prove possible, and that they themselves might be in 

 proper condition to attest to what they really represent as an engineer- 

 ing achievement. 



Entirely erroneous impressions have been given by the account of 

 these experiments in the public press, from which they have been 

 judged, even by experts; the impression being that the machine could 

 not sustain itself in flight. It seems proper, then, to emphasize and 

 to reiterate, with a view to what has just been said, that the machine 

 has never had a chance to fly at all, but that the failure occurred on 

 its launching ways ; and the question of its ability to fly is consequently, 

 as yet, an untried one. 



There have, then, been no failures as far as the actual test of the 

 flying capacity of the machine is concerned, for it has never been 

 free in the air at all. The failure of the financial means for continu- 

 ing these expensive experiments has left the question of their result 

 where it stood before they were undertaken, except that it has been 

 demonstrated that engines can be built, as they have been, of little 

 over one half the weight that was assigned as the possible minimum 

 by the best builders of France and Germany; that the frame can be 

 made strong enough to carry these engines, and that, so far as any 

 possible prevision can extend, another flight would be successful if 

 the launching were successful; for in this, and in this alone, as far 

 as is known, all the trouble has come. 



The experiments have also given necessary information about this 

 launching. They have shown that the method which succeeded per- 

 fectly on a smaller scale is insufficient on a larger one, and they have 

 indicated that it is desirable that the launching should take place 

 nearer the surface of the water, either from a track upon the shore or 

 from a house boat large enough to enable the apparatus to be launched 

 at any time with the wings extended and perhaps with wings inde- 

 pendent of support from guys. But the construction of this new 

 launching apparatus would involve further considerable expenditures 

 that there are no present means to meet; and this, and this alone, is 

 the cause of their apparent failure. 



Failure in the aerodrome itself or its engines there has been none; 

 and it is believed that it is at the moment of success, and when the 

 engineering problems have been solved, that a lack of means has pre- 

 vented a continuance of the work. 



